Aloha Friday,

The rates are up a touch from last week. It is hard to figure out if it is due to the abundance of loans in process and the banks need to slow down the flow, or is it due to actual mortgage backed securities rising. There are several banks we sell loans to who are raising their conforming rates to almost 6% just to shut off the flow of loans coming through the door. Incredible!!

Good news, several of the banks have put purchases as a priority (as they should be) lowering the underwriting time to 3-6 days and extending refinancing underwriting to as long as 16-21 days.

When you look at the rate sheet, it is not a typo, the zero points loans are basically a .5 to .75% higher as Wall Street does not want zero point loans in the refinance stretch. Last time we went through a refinance craze everyone did zero point loans and then refinanced 3-6 months later destroying the value of the banks portfolio due to early payoffs. They learned and this time, the good rates start at a 1 point loan cost.

Please let me know if you have any questions as we will burning the midnight oil this weekend to get caught up. Have a great day.